The history of clowns and clowning

I’ve long heard negative things about Room Service starring the Marx Brothers – Groucho, Chico, and Harpo. However, after viewing the movie for myself, I don’t think that they’re deserved. Granted, it’s not of the same quality as Duck Soup, but it’s still very funny in its’ own right. That’s not to say that there aren’t negative things to say. The pace seems slow compared to typical Marx Brothers fare. The movie starts slowly. On the other hand, the ending of the movie is the normal zaniness that we’ve come to expect, and it plays well.

Review of Room Service

The basic plot has Groucho playing Broadway producer Gordon Miller, trying to find backing for his play after running up an enormous tab at the hotel where he and his cast are staying – $1,200, which was a huge amount back in 1938. The play is ready to open in a day. If they can avoid getting thrown out of the hotel first, they will be able to pay off their bills. To complicate matters, the author of the play comes in. Just as Groucho, Chico, and Harpo are about to skip out on the hotel bill.

One thing leads to another. They decide to pretend that the author has contracted measles, to keep from being thrown out of the hotel. This leads to one of the madcap moments in the film. Harpo spits iodine through a strainer to cover the author with spots for his “measles”. They can’t be thrown out, but they aren’t getting any food, either. One attempt has Harpo winning a turkey in a drawing. Only to have Harpo bring a live turkey to the hotel room, and have the turkey “fly” out the window. With wires manipulating the puppet turkey to fly – a very funny moment, with the wires being so obvious that they’re hilarious.

Later, as the hotel manager is preparing to have them arrested, the author fakes his own suicide. Blaming the hotel manager for driving him to it – as does Harpo. The hotel manager feels appropriately guilty, giving the play enough time to go on and become a smash success. The hotel manager reacts appropriately when he meets the “dead” author and the “dead” Harpo on stage – a nice, zany ending.

Editorial Review of Room Service (courtesy of Amazon.com )

This Broadway farce was tailored as a movie for the Marx Brothers, but the fit wasn’t necessarily a good one. Still, a little Marx comedy mayhem is better than none. Groucho plays a theatrical producer holed up in a hotel room; he doesn’t have a cent but he does have a sure-fire Broadway hit, if only he can put the funds together to get it on stage. To do so, he’s willing to try anything–including convincing the naive playwright that he’s got a contagious disease in order to quarantine him and keep the hotel manager at bay. The cast includes Ann Miller and a young Lucille Ball but the humor is not as sharp or quick-witted as the Marx Brothers’ usual fare. —Marshall Fine